The Blacklist S1E8
WARNING: This review contains spoilers.
This episode's theme is about fatherhood. Or not.
The opening scene where a father and son are playing in the park as aircraft parts (and bodies!) fall from the sky is terrifying. Later, we find out that the father and son died as a result of the aircraft bombing by a group of nutcases calling themselves "General Ludd." The General Ludd group appear to be the illegitimate lovechild of WTO protesters and the Unibomber. And their main guy, the newly-blond Bradley Holland/Nathaniel Wolf/Arthur Denning (Justin Kirk), a familiar look-a-like, is busy planning more attacks in hopes of bringing down the country's financial system. Because his daddy was laid off, found comfort in a bottle, and committed suicide. Sure, why not destroy your country's financial system if a family member develops a substance abuse problem and suffers from depression? Makes perfect sense. If you are Carlos the Jackal.
The FBI proves to be less clueless and almost competent this week, as they capture the #HourBad, with help from Reddington of course. Reddington tricks a plastic surgeon (Andrew Dice Clay!) into giving him the name of Holland/Wolf/Denning and the FBI get their man. Reddington even gets a great throwaway line when he suggests that he helps the FBI so that he can make fun of Agent Ressler, a hobby that Reddington and I share.
But the big reveal of the evening is that Lizzy's father (William Sadler) is dying of cancer and gets a visit from Reddington and Tom the Teacher (Ryan Eggold), in that order. Reddington obviously has a long relationship with Lizzy's adoptive father, and the two men apparently have lots of respect for one another, as they hint that Reddington is Lizzy's biological father. Then Red euthanizes Lizzy's father, just before Tom arrives at the hospital to stay with the man until Lizzy can get there (because she is riding shotgun in a recklessly speeding Suburban with, you guessed it, Agent Ressler!). Thanks to General Ludd's aircraft attacks, all planes are grounded, except for Reddington's private jet. Because, ... who can say why he gets to still fly around, this is The Blacklist we're talking about. Great setpiece this episode as a jet blows up on the tarmac before it can take off! And of course, Lizzy and Ressler are near the explosion and get knocked down. Ressler's proximity to weekly explosions may be an explanation for his lack of cognitive function, but that's possibly a future episode.
Reddington gets the opportunity to make veiled threats to Tom in an eerie scene. We are not privy to whether Tom knows who Reddington is, so the scene is sort of a moot point, but you still get a sense that Tom is not just a fourth-grade teacher who needs a substitute to fill in for him quite often. Because he is out honoring assassin contracts, being waterboarded by the not-FBI/CIA, and getting shower sex. While shadowy fruit munchers watch via hidden cameras. I think I would notice that many cameras around my house or the creepy guys in the van down the street, but I'm not a FBI profiler/hacker or a fourth-grade teacher-assassin-secret double agent.
Reddington convinces Harold (Harry Lennix) that he will assist the FBI with this week's #HourBad IF he gets access to VICAP, the FBI's bad-guy database. And he uses the numbers that he received as payment back in Wuijing to access the file of a chick who looks a lot like Elizabeth Keen. And the girl from the photo in The Stewmaker. I think I wonder (and care?) who the girl is. Maybe its #FauxLizzy. Or #CylonLizzy.
Why isn't Reddington in jail? Why do I watch this show?
Another hour of The Blacklist is in the books, and the season arc is beginning to make sense. I'm just kidding, nothing about this show makes sense, but Spader is fun to watch in this role, Megan Boone is easy on the eyes, and I like seeing stuff blow up. Plus, making fun of Agent Ressler on a weekly basis is a guilty pleasure.
The Blacklist takes a break next week, so the next episode will air on November 25th. Maybe the writers will treat us to an unknown international turkey smuggler blacklister to get us into the holiday season.
Random Thoughts:
- What are the #HourBad's reasons for his actions? Is it because his father killed himself after being laid off by the evil corporate fatcat exectutives? Is it to steal the $100 Treasury plate to flood the market with counterfeit money? Or is it to make your own $100 bills? Or is it all just an excuse to dye your hair blond?
- Harold inexplicably grants Red access to the not-the-FBI's secure database. Maybe because of the Kuwait thing? Or maybe because of incompetence. You choose. A future twist will be that Harold is Ressler's father?
- I think this episode strongly suggests that Red is definitely Liz's father. So a future episode will throw us a twist. Like Grey (Charles Baker) is really her father. Or something. Because that's what diabolical mastermind shows do.
- Honestly, I don't even care who her father is. But I would like to know how her father is.
- Love the reveal that Red has a suburban mom counterfeiting money for him.
- Did I mention that Andrew Dice Clay was in this episode?
- Ressler looks forlorn when Elizabeth finds out about her adoptive father's death. Still think the writers are pushing for a Ressler/Keen romantic union in the future. Are her only choices for a mate either the fourth-grade-teaching assassin or the dumb-as-a-bag-of-hammers Ressler? Even the computer geek guy who works at the not-the-FBI would be a better choice.
- Is Ressler anti-corporate?
What did you think?
-----
If you like what you see here, check out The TVPhile Zone on Facebook and Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment